RMT SLAMS SEA RESCUE PRIVATISATION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2013 :: RMTnews 7 T he government has ended 70 years of search and rescue by the RAF and Royal Navy by handing the £1.6 billion 10-year contract to the private Texas-based Bristow Group from 2015. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union was deeply concerned that the privatisation of search and rescue, tied in with a programme of cuts including the loss of helicopter and coastguard capacity, would have a seriously detrimental impact on these life or death services in British waters. “The government has not produced a shred of evidence that safety is paramount and this looks to RMT like another privatisation policy driven by both ideology and the central demand to cut budgets. “As a union that as represents both seafarers and workers in the offshore industry, the bottom line for us is that those cuts could cost lives and put our members directly at risk,” he said. Under the private contract, 22 helicopters will operate from 10 locations around the UK. Ten S-92s will be based, two per site, at Stornoway and Sumburgh, and at new bases at Newquay, Caernarfon and Humberside airports. Ten AW189s will operate, two per site, from Lee-on-the- Solent and a new hangar at Prestwick airport, and new bases which will be established at St Athan, Inverness and Manston airports. The new deal will also see Bristow take over some of the civilian search and rescue (SAR) bases currently run by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Military analyst Howard Wheeldon said that the RAF and Navy had provided a fantastic service over so many years and most search and rescue services around the world remain in the hands of government or military. "Going to a PFI, which this essentially is, brings a lot of dangers. “Callouts have gone up 40 per cent since 2005, this is a big operation, a lot of people's lives are at risk here. "Will the private sector operation take on the same sort of risks that the RAF, the Royal Navy and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency do, on the same scale? I rather doubt that they will,” he said. R MT has produced bi-lingual postcards in English and Welsh for residents to send to their Wales assembly members to oppose Network Rail cutting signalling operations in Wales and moving what is left of the work to Cardiff. The union is warning that there will be a loss of rail jobs throughout Wales with a disproportionate impact on jobs in North Wales. RMT regional organiser and former signaller John Tilley said that Network Rail should relocate control of North Wales railways not into a centre in Cardiff, but into a small new centre in North Wales, thereby retaining some jobs and the crucial local knowledge. “Network Rail as a publicly funded company should ensure its decisions do not adversely impact on local jobs and communities in Wales,” he said. RMT SLAMS SEA RESCUE PRIVATISATION SAVE RAIL JOBS IN NORTH WALES www.rmt.org.uk